Worst Team in Baseball?

Dave Cameron: Also since the start of the 2010 season, Jose Bautista’s Isolated Slugging is .381. The next highest in baseball is Miguel Cabrera… who is at .281, exactly 100 points lower. Over the past 365 days, Bautista’s line is as follows: 156 games, 673 PA, .292/.421/.708, 33 2B, 3 3B, 63 HR, 114 BB, 100 K, 10 SB, 2 CS. Albert Pujols is second in home runs over the same time period – he has 41.

Jack Moore: Let's examine. Eight first basemen have 25+ runs so far, only four third basemen do (and it's very possible neither of them -- Jose Bautista, Neil Walker, Alex Gordon, or Martin Prado -- will have that qualification next year). 12 first basemen have 25+ RBIs against only seven third basemen. Similar trends hold for the other stats (except for SB, which third basemen are better). What's more striking is comparing z-scores, or standard deviations from the mean, when Pujols moves from first base to third base. According to pre-season projections, Pujols was 1.7-2.3 standard deviations above the mean in runs, RBIs, home runs and batting average versus other first basemen. Against third basemen? The numbers skyrocket. His z-scores for runs, RBIs, homers, and average respectively: 2.8, 2.5, 2.7 and 3.1. No other third baseman had a z-score above 2.3 in any category except for Jose Bautista in home runs, and Evan Longoria's RBI projection was the only other z-score above 2.0. So Pujols is clearly an elite third baseman, and only Jose Bautista could really challenge him at the position.

Power Rankings, done right?

Paul Swydan: 18. New York Mets: To wit, Jeff Francis has accumulated the same WAR (0.7) this season as have all Mets starting pitchers combined.

Anniversaries

Chris Jaffe* 1963 Bob Allison becomes the first Twin to hit three home runs in one game.* 1977 Vida Blue pitches 13 innings, the longest outing of his career, but gets stuck with a no-decision as the game keeps going on. His line: 13 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K.* 1988 Greg Maddux has the longest outing of his career: 10.2 IP and 167 pitches. He gets the loss* 1998 David Wells tosses a perfect game: NYY 4, MIN 0.* 2002 Erubiel Durazo hits three homers for Arizona in one game

Buyer Beware: Alexi Ogando

Josh Shepardson: Going forward, I’d expect Ogando’s ERA to closely match his 3.91 xFIP. There is some downside potential with him as well, being that he only threw 72.1 innings last year he may wear down with a heavy workload. In addition to the risk of wearing down, the Rangers may opt to shift him back to the bullpen and have him serve as the primary right-handed setup man for closer Neftali Feliz when some of their others arms are back at full health

Trotting Oswalt @ St Louis and Garcia, which could end poorly , Volquez, who I just got off Waivers, vs ChC, which will likely end poorly (unless he suddenly stops walking guys and giving up HR) , and Shields vs NYY, which could certainly end poorly

Trotting Oswalt @ St Louis and Garcia, which could end poorly , Volquez, who I just got off Waivers, vs ChC, which will likely end poorly (unless he suddenly stops walking guys and giving up HR) , and Shields vs NYY, which could certainly end poorly

I don't like where this is going...

Oh, and I'm sitting Liriano, so expect something close to a No Hitter.